It's too early to tell who wins and loses on the hot stove, but if you were to give grades now who wins?

Question

I know the "hot stove" TECHNICALLY means free agent and trades, but I want to factor everything in here. The Angels added 1 CF who can catch for a few years but has a mediocre bat. The Angels also traded for a pitcher who will do ok there, but gave up a gold glover. Joe Crede would fill that hole nicely I think making them a complete team. Please remember that K-Rod is a free agent next year and the Yanks could sign him to replace Rivera soon. (70 million + coming off the payroll in 08 and that's scary since it's 35% of the total payroll and we aren't talking small payrolls here for that type of %. The Yanks will most likely get Santana and resign Pettite. They have Moose to play the wingman to these young stars, and Cano is going to get better and put a nice Bernie Williams career up on the stat sheet. The only other competition is from the Sox. They are older as are we I give them that, but they revolve around 2 guys (Ortiz Manny) and they are both past their prime trouble is brewing

It's a classic example of over estimating your hand. The Angels did it in 02, the Diamondbacks in 01, the Marlins in 03, and the White Sox and Tigers in 05, 06. History proves you can just make a dynasty because you win a few. You're most likely to fall on your face. The Sox don't have the talent to replace the Manny, Ortiz, Varetek, Lowells, Schillings in the Lineup. They will compete for 1 more year maybe 2, but after that, they better score big in the FA market, because that's all they have. I don't mean this as a Yankee fan... I never bring fan opinion to ANY of my comments. It is just ignorant and wrong to do so. Facts are facts, they the AL is shaping up to be the Central as the best division, meaning the team that wins the AL East goes to the playoffs. The Sox have a lot of work to do.

Kris we may not have seen eye to eye on many things here, and deservedly so being our fav teams, however, to say that Manny and Ortiz aren't the focus the ballclub and then in the same sentense say Lowell had a career year is counter logcial. Lowell was 33 w/ a career year, odds are he wont duplicate. Manny is 36-37 and is going downhill. This puts even more pressure on Ortiz to single handedly pick up the slack and just like Mo Vaughn, Cecil Fielder, and Albert Belle, histroy shows guys like him break down. I'm not saying you fall off the map ASAP, but you have one year left, maybe 2 since the rookies you brought up will counter some of that loss of production, but to say the Yanks need "more" work than the Sox isn't correct. We added 3 (maybe Santana too) starters to our rotation. You mention no free agents, yet you fail admit Boston won off it's farm system. The Yanks are doing the same thing... why is it different to you? no other team has added as much pitching. Its a HUGE upgrade

Answer 1

Its still too early to Gage who's the winner of the Winter Meetings (Hot Stove) which takes place next week. Yes the Yankees are in talks with the Twins to obtain Johan Santana but at what price? I say any deal with Joba is no deal for the Yankees. It may come to pass that the Twins are looking for too much in return for Santana. Depending upon any deal for Santana The Yankees will have to make a move for a center fielder if Melky is included. Andrew Jones is out there as is Aaron Rowland. It's definitely getting interesting.
No one gets the winning grade yet. The only deal made so far that was for any known star was the Angels getting Torii Hunter and that wasn't earth shaking.

Answer 2

As of this minute, I believe there are very few "winners". But the three I am going to have to list as of right now (in no particular order) are :

Chicago Cubs - They have unloaded some salary via trades and got back some important free agents. However they still need to finalize their outfield. I would give them a B/B-.

Boston Red Sox - They resigned the important players from last season and are looking to get rid of some salary and free up more playing time for strong young characters. A-/B+

New York Yankees - They got A-Rod back (or so we are told), Posada, and a new Manager. They have a ways to go though... C+/C

Chicago White Sox - got rid of a so-so pitcher and picked up a decent SS. B/B-

Again, not too many "big" deals have been done so this is nothing of note. LA Angels of A could be on here, but on paper the Garland trade looks like a bad move.

Answer 3

As to who wins the Free Agency market rush this year so far, it'd be the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. They've picked up Jon Garland, and Torri Hunter and they are scouting some power hitters like Andruw Jones, and others.

As to who needs to do work, it's definitely the New York Yankees, the only thing they've done is re-sign a hefy price, Alex Rodriguez and that's pretty much destroyed their cap room. I'd have to say they need to get some starters, as of Johan Santana and some other young pitching stars.

Answer 4

Considering there isn't a lot going on in the hot stove league I would have to say the Angels are the winners so far...the Sox squaring away Lowell and Schilling are probably number two right now....but it has been quiet so far so it is way too early to grade.

Answer 5

I'd say the Yankees have much more work to do than do the Red Sox. The Yankees haven't added any free agents as of now.

The Sox didn't revolve around 2 guys: Manny had a down year and Ortiz had a great season but was banged up for a good part of it. Pedroia was the rookie of the year, Lowell had a career year, Beckett was dominant all season, and Papelbon was automatic. Not to mention Youkalis had his break out year (made zero errors and was good at the plate.)
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Answer 6

The Angels have had the best offseason so far and other than them nothing has really happened yet there has been a lot of talk but not a lot of action so the angels have done the most to help themselves

and torri hunters bat is not mediocre i dont know who you know as torri hunter but he is a very good hitter

Answer 7

I'm going to go with my gut. I think the Yanks are in a better position now with Girardi. I think his acquisition was bigger than signing A-Rod. He knows what got us those 4 rings.

In fact, I think we'd be better off without A-Rod.

Final grade for the Yanks. C. I'll do a progression. We start at an F, cause we didn't win a ring. Added Jorge, D. Added Mariano, C. Added Girardi, B. Signed A-Rod, still a B. Considering trading away young players for Santana, Down to a C again.

As for the best grade so far? Angels or Cubs, hands down.

Answer 8

for a team that revolves around just ortiz and manny, they did a pretty good job considering both of those guys power numbers sucked this past year. I am amazed your yankees let hunter go somewhere they love to overpay and overextend for over the hill talent. I guess they are waiting to overpay for Andruw Jones, he can be the next Giambi/abreu all hype nothing to show for it.

the sox won because of their pitching, plain and simple. and they have 4 starters with major league experience under 28. papelbon is 26. their starting 2nd baseman and after they deal coco their CF will both be under 26. I'd say if they can continue to get quality guys from their minor league teams, they are doing just fine.

Answer 9

i think the angels have, thus far, easily been the biggest winners, if they can add one more bat, preferable miguel cabrera, they will seal the deal as the biggest winners

Answer 10

Tigers' off season moves have been pretty good.
I'd give them a "B"